Alone further east: Gilis and Lombok

On Monday, August 22nd, I said goodbye to my travel companions Laura and Martina and continued on to Padangbai alone. Padangbai is a small harbor village in the east of Bali. Few tourists spend a night here, most of them take the next ship to the Gilis. However, the village has a beautiful beach promenade and two very nice beaches. Being 'alone on the road' initially felt a bit strange: I could always do whatever I felt like, but I also had to organize everything myself. But I rarely stayed alone, usually I quickly met other travelers and spent minutes, hours or days with them.

On the second day in Padangbai, I rented a scooter for the first time and drove to the capital of Bali (Denpasar), which is about 1 hour away, to try to extend my visa. Riding the scooter went quite well, although driving on the left and the priority rules here take some getting used to. Unfortunately, extending the visa didn't work out. Nevertheless, the experience was exciting.

From Padangbai, I continued to the Gilis by speedboat. The Gilis are famous for snorkeling and diving with colorful fish and turtles, relaxing on the beach, and partying. I chose Gili Air, which is said to be the coziest, but not as sleepy as its smaller sister Gili Meno. In fact, the traffic-free island has its own rhythm. My main activities on the island were enjoying a beautiful snorkeling tour with turtles, atmospheric sunsets, and relaxing. I met many other lonely travelers at my hostel, and some of us spent a night together on Gili Trawangan, the ultimate party island. It's almost comparable to Palma in Mallorca. Really, it was a fun night!

From Gili Trawangan, I continued to Senggigi, Lombok, together with Myriel, a German girl from our group of lonely travelers. The surroundings of Senggigi are beautiful, with many white beaches and palm forests. Unfortunately, Senggigi itself is not that great. The 'village', which is actually more a row of houses along a main road, seems to be solely dependent on tourism. There is a tourist office next to the next one, all wanting to sell you a tour or something else. But I wonder where all the tourists are who should take advantage of this offer. The system of supply and demand doesn't seem to be known here yet.

But since I wanted to extend my visa in nearby Mataram, the capital of Lombok, I still stayed in Senggigi for a few days. Since I had to wait three days on the immigration office after day 1 until they processed my documents, I could use the time to climb Mount Rinjani.

The three-day trekking tour to the summit at 3,700 meters above sea level was one of the highlights of my journey so far. On the first day, we had to hike for about six hours to reach the crater rim. Since it was a guided tour, we didn't have to carry up a tent or food, only our own clothes and water. Fortunately, the ascent was quite challenging, as everything was just unpaved paths. But the view over the sea of clouds and the crater lake were reward enough. Once the sun had set, it became incredibly cold, as we were already at about 2,500 meters above sea level. So we soon retreated to the tent and tried to rest on the hard sleeping mats. The next day, a two-hour walk led us to the crater lake, where we could take a pleasant refreshing bath. Because since we started walking, we had only had water for drinking. It became even more pleasant in the natural hot springs. After lunch, we climbed steeply for about four hours to the other side of the crater, to the foot of the summit. There we had our second overnight camp, again without running water and sanitary facilities. On the third day, we set off for the summit at 2:30 a.m. The ascent took about three hours, but the path was really challenging: the volcanic scree was so slippery that for every two steps forward, one step back. When we reached the top, we were sweaty and freezing until the sun finally appeared and we could enjoy the panorama. Wonderful: all the effort paid off! Now there was only the two-hour descent back to the camp, and another six hours down from the volcano. All together, 11 hours of hiking in one day. Dog-tired, incredibly dirty and covered in dust, I returned to Senggigi in the evening.

The next day, I continued taking care of my visa. In the morning, there was a small photo shoot and fingerprints, and at 5:00 p.m. I was able to pick up my passport with the stamp. Actually, it's not that complicated, but the eternal waiting and not knowing what the next step will be made the visa extension also an adventure.